Featured Author: Charlie Palmer has always lived in his own world (population: one), seeing bogeymen under the bed and shadows that linger in the corner of his vision. In 2013, after twenty-seven bone-numbing years of crunching numbers in the finance sector, he faced a health crisis and made the decision (crazy/prudent/delirious—remains to be seen) to leap off the conveyer belt and pursue his bucket list.

Top of this list sits a lifetime ambition to be a published writer. He is the author of several short stories and one novel, The Frail Deeds of Good Men, which is currently sitting with a publisher. Novel number two is in the works.

For him, writing is a cathartic experience. Nothing gives him greater satisfaction than the moment a page of scribbles comes together and sings, breathing life into his sometimes funny, sometimes disturbing, but always heartfelt dreams. Except maybe a decent curry. Curry makes him happy.

When not traveling the world following Formula One, trying new foods, and making new friends, you can find him in Colchester (England’s oldest recorded town) with his wife, two teenage boys, and a Labrador cruelly described by some as obese.

LHP: How long have you been writing?

LHP: What genre do you prefer to write in?

Charlie Palmer: Character led crime I guess you’d call it, although no matter how hard I try to be serious, a little bit of humour always creeps in. The editor for my first novel, ‘The Frail Deeds of Good Men’ said it made her laugh and cry. It’s unclear at this stage whether this was a good thing!Back to top >>>

LHP: What/who inspired you to be a writer?

Charlie Palmer: The authors of any of the incredible books I’ve read. I’m an insatiable reader, so it’s a long list. Special mention to Miss Allen, my infant school English tutor. You never forget a good teacher.

LHP: Describe your writing process. What comes first–character or plot? Do you “pants” it or outline?

Charlie Palmer: For me, the characters are all important and generally the story unfurls as I test them and place them in challenging situations. I’ve tried being grown up and sketching an outline of the story but I get too many ideas as I get to know, and grow fond of these characters. With Frail Deeds I just picked up the pen every day and saw where it took me, and I can see it now when I read it back. That approach often manifests itself in an episodic story arc. When I began my second novel, I knew the beginning middle and end, so the end result should be tighter.

LHP: What is your daily/weekly routine as a writer?

Charlie Palmer: I try and write every day, although sometimes it’s just not possible. I have a clear idea of what I’m trying to achieve in the scene, then just go for it. There’s nothing better than when you get your ‘flow on’! It can become an almost unconscious process.

LHP: Are there any software tools, resources, or websites you use often while writing?

Charlie Palmer: I always refer to a thesaurus, but I suspect that’s normal. I like to have a picture in my head of what the characters look like. In the past I’ve found them in magazines, news paper articles or online. An internet image search of a scene or location sometimes gets the creative juices flowing.

LHP: What are some of your biggest challenges you feel like you have to overcome in your writing career?

Charlie Palmer: The thought of someone reading my work fills me with terror! Also, I’ve found literary agents need to be able to pigeon hole your work into not only a predetermined genre, but a genre that’s currently in vogue.

LHP: How much time is spent on “the business of writing” – queries, seeking an agent or publisher, marketing/sales?

LHP: Can you give some us some insight into your story?

Charlie Palmer: I think most people are intrigued by the paranormal. An increasing number are questioning the mainstream religions and looking for answers elsewhere. Imagine a seemingly ordinary man, but one with the gift of presentience. Be honest, who wouldn’t want that? Now imagine this gift imprisons, not liberates him. This, is Owen Swann’s story.

LHP: What advice can you give other writers?

Charlie Palmer: Write as often and as much as you can. Growing as a writer and honing those skills is an organic process that takes hundreds of hours. My writing now is very different – better – than when I started.Back to top >>>

LHP: How long have you been writing?

Andrea L. Staum: I have always had stories going and had entered my first story contest in sixth grade which grew into the seed plot for my Dragonchild Lore series. That seed would germinate for ten years before it came to anything of length (which ended up being the last book of the series) and another eight would pass before Book 1 would come to light. Back to top >>>

LHP: What genre do you prefer to write in?

Andrea L. Staum: I tend to stick to fantasy or science fiction. I like writing epic fantasy that also brings about character growth. My dragons are there but they aren’t the main force that drives the story. Urban fantasy allows me to play with metaphysics and other-worldly creatures in our modern world. I also dabble with steampunk and sci-fi. I like to challenge my creative possibilities.Back to top >>>

LHP: What/who inspired you to be a writer?

Andrea L. Staum: My dad is a poet. I grew up with scraps of paper around the house with writings on them. I also had really supportive English teachers who saw and encouraged my potential.Back to top >>>

LHP: Describe your writing process. What comes first–character or plot? Do you “pants” it or outline?

Andrea L. Staum: I am a hybrid. I have a general outline but nothing in-depth. I don’t want to confine the stories to just where or how I think it should go. I honestly don’t know where the origins of my stories come from because they all originate differently. I look for open calls and use those to ponder on a topic I might not think about and see where the thoughts take me.Back to top >>>

LHP: What is your daily/weekly routine as a writer?

Andrea L. Staum: I am really lax for having a pattern. Part of the reason is I’m currently in edits and am dragging my feet. I try to spend a few hours a week devoted to writing, but there is not a set routine.Back to top >>>

LHP: Are there any software tools, resources, or websites you use often while writing?

A World Unimagined, a sci-fi anthology by Left Hand Publishers

Andrea L. Staum: The resource that I make use of the most is naming books and sites. I like knowing the meaning behind names and how it can shape the character. Otherwise trips to my library when I have a specific topic to read up on can result in piles of material. I still prefer print to screen reading.Back to top >>>

LHP: What are some of your biggest challenges you feel like you have to overcome in your writing career?

Andrea L. Staum: My self-doubt. There is always a feeling that the stories aren’t as good as they could be and I am fooling myself. Then I go back and read them after the fact and am like “wow, I did this?” The other thing that helped is rereading books that inspired me and seeing the slight errors that made it through the entire editing/publishing process makes me realize I’m not so bad after all. At least I’am sending my words into the world as the best I can present them; I can’t control if others read or like themBack to top >>>

LHP: Do set word counts or other goals?

Andrea L. Staum: I put out goals for completion and timelines to reach depending on the project. That is why I like open calls. It gives me a definitive deadline. At the beginning of the year I set up my writing goals. This usually includes a certain number of submissions to publishers per quarter and my own major projects.Back to top >>>

LHP: How much time is spent on “the business of writing”, queries, seeking an agent or publisher, marketing/sales?

Andrea L. Staum: I think this ongoing and never ending so devoted time is hard to say. Marketing and branding of self is continuous. I’ll usually take an hour a two a week to look at what calls are out there and see if the themes are something that speak to me and that I am comfortable with.Back to top >>>

LHP: Do you prefer short stories or full length novels in your writing?

Andrea L. Staum: I like the challenge of short stories. I like having a limited amount words to tell a full plot with relatable stories. That being said, I love the worlds that my longer works inhabit but even they are used in some of my short stories. There are innumerous possibilities just like in the real world since there are so many secondary characters.Back to top >>>

LHP: Can you give some us some insight into your story?

Andrea L. Staum: “Space Junk” is about Aefel, who is a crewman of a salvage ship. My dad actually ran his own salvage business for years and I grew up knowing how the “junk” business works here on Earth. I took that knowledge and launched it into space. Even now there are derelict satellites orbiting the planet, what will happen in the future when there are whole hulks of colonies of ships abandoned in the black? That being said, Aefel has his own salvage mission when their target haul is the colony where he was born and that mission is what “Space Junk” focuses on.Back to top >>>

LHP: What advice can you give other writers?

Andrea L. Staum:Write what calls to you. Don’t try and stuff yourself into some little box just because it is what is hot and trendy if that isn’t what you like to write. There are markets out there for what you love to write. There are readers out there that want what only you can offer. It might take time to find them and it might seem daunting and hard, but that’s okay. Don’t let it discourage you. Make the frustration and aggravation from each rejection work for you and hone your craft to prove to the naysayers that you are good and worth a second look.Back to top >>>

A World Unimagined

]]>Featured Author: Flemming Lord – A World Unimaginedhttps://lefthandpublishers.com/featured-author-flemming-lord/
Mon, 05 Nov 2018 16:41:49 +0000https://lefthandpublishers.com/?p=2279Flemming Lord Featured Author: Flemming Lord was born in West Africa to English and Danish parents. He grew up in…

Featured Author: Flemming Lord was born in West Africa to English and Danish parents. He grew up in the UK, then lived and worked in Japan for 20 years. He has a degree in astrophysics, and despite that handicap has worked as an English teacher, human resources manager and e-learning designer. His influences include Philip K Dick, Michael Moorcock, William Gibson, Stanislaw Lem, Umberto Eco, Hunter S Thompson, Kazuo Ishiguro and Haruki Murakami. He is interested in cosmology, ontology, artificial intelligence, paradoxes, synthesizers and guitars. His writing is driven by the two complimentary questions, “What is the nature of reality?” and “What is the nature of consciousness?” He supports environmental causes, guided by the principle that without a habitable environment most other causes are secondary. He thinks he can play several instruments and enjoys writing and recording music. He currently lives in Shropshire, UK.

LHP: How long have you been writing?

Flemming Lord: I have been writing on and off all my life, but have only taken it seriously with a concrete ambition to be published within the past year.Back to top >>>

LHP: What genre do you prefer to write in?

Flemming Lord: I like to work with speculative and philosophical ideas, so my preferred genre is science fiction and broader speculative fiction.Back to top >>>

LHP: What/who inspired you to be a writer?

A World Unimagined, a sci-fi anthology by Left Hand Publishers

Flemming Lord: I grew up reading science fiction, and was always drawn to the work of Philip K. Dick, for reasons that I did not fully come to understand until much later. Stylistically and structurally, Stanislaw Lem and Umberto Eco are major influences, and the strange artistry of Michael Moorcock and Mervyn Peake made an indelible impression on me that I hope comes though in a small way in my writing.Back to top >>>

LHP: Describe your writing process. What comes first–character or plot? Do you “pants” it or outline?

Flemming Lord: My writing generally starts with an odd question, such as “If we created an artificial superintelligence, would it even be interested in us?” and then I devise a plot that serves that question, hopefully in a way that will be emotionally relatable to the reader, and populate it with characters that create some narrative and dramatic tension. That framework usually leads me to explore the question in ways that I had not anticipated, which in turn can lead me to adjust the plot and the characters.Back to top >>>

LHP: What is your daily/weekly routine as a writer?

Flemming Lord: It’s not very disciplined. I usually have two or three story ideas mulling around, and when one of them seems substantial enough to tackle, and I have the time, I start writing. It the stars are aligned, then the first draft of the story comes pretty quickly after that.

LHP: Are there any software tools, resources, or websites you use often while writing?

Flemming Lord: A lot of my story ideas get into technical scientific concepts, so I often find myself researching particular topics on the internet. I look things up on Wikipedia a lot, as a good jumping off point for an unfamiliar topic, and I watch science and philosophy lectures on YouTube to hear ideas presented and communicated in different ways. While writing, I make a lot of use of online thesauruses to help me think about and find the precise way in which I want to describe or express something.Back to top >>>

LHP: What are some of your biggest challenges you feel like you have to overcome in your writing career?

A World Unimagined, a sci-fi anthology by Left Hand Publishers

Flemming Lord: At the moment I find writing dialogue the hardest, since it is the thing that I am the least practised at. In the past, the biggest challenge was being my own harshest critic, and always thinking that my work had not come close to reaching the standard that I was aiming for, and therefore had no merit. As a result I’ve had a lot of good ideas over the years that I sat on only to see someone else have the same or a similar idea and turn it into a book or a screenplay, and that observation has motivated me to just get on with the writing and not worry about perfection so much. Sometimes being the first is more important than being the best, when it comes to writing.

LHP: Do you prefer short stories or full length novels in your writing?

Flemming Lord: I prefer short stories. I like the immediacy of being able to capture an idea, like an insect in amber, and then moving on to the next idea. Maintaining the kind of focus than my style tends to require for the duration of a novel is exhausting, and when I start with an idea I often have no idea where it will take me, and that kind of story evolution is more manageable with a short story than a full length novel.Back to top >>>

LHP: How much time is spent on “the business of writing” – queries, seeking an agent or publisher, marketing/sales?

Flemming Lord: Not much, to be honest, at least compared to the time spent doing the actual writing. My writing goals are near term, and my publishing goals are long term, so my focus right now is much more on writing the kinds of stories that I want to write, and the business of getting them published is a secondary concern.Back to top >>>

LHP: Can you give some us some insight into your story?

Flemming Lord: Without giving away too much, it’s an attempt at a fractal story, which means that everything in it is repeated on ever larger scales, from the human scale to the scale of the entire universe, both in space and in time. Beyond that, it was written specifically for the title of the anthology – “A World Unimagined”. I asked myself the question, “What if the universe was both imagined and not imagined, simultaneously?” and then thought about how that could come to be from a scientific point of view. On top of that, I could not resist the opportunity to try to describe the evolution of the entire universe from the universe’s point of view. The story isn’t really meant to be understood completely, but there are a lot of fun connections to be found if the reader wants to.

LHP: What advice can you give other writers?

Flemming Lord: Everyone knows that the best advice is to simply write as much as you can, as often as you can, about whatever you can, so on top of that, the one personal piece of advice that I would offer is to try to put together themes, styles and elements that no one has combined before. It won’t always work, but when it does you will have created something completely original, and surely that is the point.Back to top >>>

Featured Author: Rory Warwick is a British horror and science fiction writer who writes under the name R. W. Warwick. He lives in Tokyo with his wife who is a travel writer, and spends a considerable amount of his time writing his stories by hand on piles of notebooks, and exploring the Japanese countryside. When he is not writing, he enjoys mountain climbing, attempting to rekindle his relationship with the guitar, and looking for the next cyberpunk novel to fall into. Prior to moving to Japan, he worked for several years as an associate editor for US horror fiction quarterly magazine, Dark Moon Digest.

His writing credits include such horror and science fiction magazines as Frostfire Worlds, Perihelion Science Fiction, Bewildering Stories, and Gathering Storm Magazine, among others. His apocalyptic far future story “The Far Side of Eternity,” received an honourable mention in the Writers of the Future contest and was subsequently published in a collection of science fiction short stories, The Dial, which is available on Amazon. He is currently working through the second draft of his first full-length science fiction novel under the working title Champion City, which he is happy to tweet about often.

Rory’s social media soapboxes include Twitter (@realRoryWarwick), and Facebook (@RWWarwick), on which he can be regularly contacted.

LHP: How long have you been writing?

Rory Warwick: I have a memory of sitting at the foot of the garden in my childhood home constructing crudely written poems; I must have been around nine or ten years old. My school English teacher was very supportive, I would prepare a new poem each week for her, and she would give me feedback on how they could be improved. Wherever you are Miss Jenkins, I owe you an awful lot. That’s about as far back as I can remember so…twenty three years.

LHP: What genre do you prefer to write in?

Rory Warwick: I write almost entirely science fiction, the bulk of my stories I was fortunate enough to have published are in that genre. That being said, I will write what comes to me, or what inspires me and if I have an idea for something really good, I run with it, like ‘Letters of the Raj’. It grew from something a little different and I just kept writing to see where it would go.Back to top >>>

LHP: What/who inspired you to be a writer?

Rory Warwick: Writing stories feels like a very natural way to express myself. Everyone has their own way of doing that. There wasn’t one thing which inspired me to write, but perhaps the biggest push I ever had was a gift I received from my wife (then girlfriend) several years ago. One Christmas she gave me a pen with my name engraved on it; she said it was to help me become a writer. I was so moved. When your passion is something which involves taking rejection most of the time, and all you have to keep going is your own blind determination, something like that from someone else really means a lot.

LHP: Describe your writing process. What comes first–character or plot? Do you “pants” it or outline?

Rory Warwick: I’ve done both, it depends on the first idea. If I’m working from something that just comes to me, I’ll imagine an opening scene in my head and write that and then just keep writing from there. I find that works best with short stories. When I’m working on something larger, like a novel, I have to plan. The story becomes more complex as I go, and I need to make copious amounts of notes just to keep up. For the novel I’m working on right now, I started off with a character idea, and then I built a plot around him, and then a world, and then more characters sprung up as the plot thickened and before I knew it, I had plotted out eighteen chapters and profiles for a dozen or so characters. It’s fun that way because you can step back and watch the characters develop, and then you can make small changes to flesh them out.

LHP: What is your daily/weekly routine as a writer?

Rory Warwick: I’m afraid I don’t have a strict writing routine. I write a lot every day, even when perhaps I shouldn’t, like at work. I have a pen and pad with me all the time so that I can just write if I have any free time, but sometimes it’s hard if you’re in a distracting environment. When I was an English teacher in Japan, I had a lot of free time between classes, and I often had very little resources to make use of, so I would carry pens and about four notepads around with me to every school I visited, then when I had a free period, I’d just sit there and write and hope that I was left alone. The problem with that is you have to type it all up eventually. I had written six chapters of my novel across four full notepads once and it took forever to type up. I think for me the routine is to just write whenever I can. I love it so much that I spend almost every free moment I have writing something. I think it’s important to just keep writing, I read once somewhere that no writing is a waste, even if you don’t end up using it, because it’s all practice.

LHP: Are there any software tools, resources, or websites you use often while writing?

Rory Warwick: Um, Microsoft Word and Dictionary.com. I type everything up on Word, and I sometimes check for the meaning of words on Dictionary.com, other than that there isn’t really anything else I use. I guess I sometimes use Wikipedia for research if I’m trying to make something as accurate as possible. I had to do quite a bit of research for ‘Letters of the Raj’ because it is set in nineteenth century India and I don’t know a whole lot about that period, so things like clothing, names of places and environment benefitted from a few Wikipedia searches. At the risk of sounding cliché I always prefer my pen and a pad.

LHP: What are some of your biggest challenges you feel like you have to overcome in your writing career?

Rory Warwick: My self-image is by far my biggest challenge and I think it always will be. I often compare myself to other writers, and I always feel like I come up short. Enough rejections will make anybody ask themselves ‘Is it worth carrying on, or am I wasting my time here?’ When I was first inspired to write something big, around 2005, I started to write a crime novel. I spent roughly a year on it, and then when it was finished I started to send it out to agencies and publishers. I racked up ninety seven rejections, and that hurt. By then I believed that some people want to be writers and some people have the skill to be writers, and I was the former. I continued because I love just love writing so much, I’m a writer in my heart, if not by profession. I worked on short stories because if I was going to get rejected, at least I would have invested less time into each story. More rejections followed (of course), but eventually someone said yes. Someone will always say yes, you just have to have the will to keep going, and you can only sustain that for something you’re passionate about. It was such an amazing feeling when Left Hand Publishers accepted my story. It is my first appearance in an anthology, and a big boost to the old self-image.

LHP: Do you have a set number of words per day you target? or do you set other goals to meet?

Rory Warwick: I don’t have word count targets. I have tried them before and I don’t like the restriction. I just keep writing until I’ve had enough. If I’m in a good place I couldn’t imagine stopping because I reached X words for the day, but at the same time, when I’m done, I can’t help but take a peek at the old word count. I guess everyone knows what a good or poor amount of words is for them.

LHP: Do you prefer short stories or full length novels in your writing?

Rory Warwick: I prefer short stories but it’s a tough one, the appeals of both are easy to see. It comes down to personal choice, and for my own it’s the challenge of a short story which appeals to me more. Anything can trigger an idea which can then evolve into a story if you work on it, but making it immersive and interesting within the word limit is the fun challenge for me. In my opinion it’s also the best way to train yourself as a writer, you can try new things, different narrative styles, character building techniques, without any pressure to stick with it for the marathon of a novel, it’s like the writer’s sandbox.

LHP: How much time is spent on “the business of writing” – queries, seeking an agent or publisher, marketing/sales?

Rory Warwick: Maybe ten per cent, but that has gone up recently. Like anything you have to learn by yourself as you go, it’s slow and full of mistakes and when you’d rather be doing something else it’s difficult, but it’s also important. I spend time trying to build my presence online, which is hard, but I spend less time seeking an agent or publisher. I have a big spreadsheet, and when a story is finished it goes on the spreadsheet which records who I can send it to, who has rejected it, and how many times each story has been rejected, that helps me stay on top of the short stories. When a story hits the magic 12 rejections, I retire it and focus on the others. I haven’t sought an agent since the ninety seventh rejection for my first attempt at a book, but that was a while ago now, and I have almost finished the first draft of my new novel, so after the third draft is done I guess I’ll have to spend some time on trying to get a publisher or agent.

LHP: Can you give some us some insight into your story?

Rory Warwick: My story in Terrors Unimagined is called “Letters of the Raj”. The inspiration to write it came from my desire to write something different and try to challenge myself as a writer. The story is told mostly in the form of letters from a young British soldier in Calcutta at the end of the nineteenth century, to his wife. On his journey across the Indian subcontinent, he encounters a strange and magical creature which he pursues across the Indian desert. The story is foremost about love and the strength of the human spirit, but I also wanted to write a story about a creature, something original and menacing.

LHP: What advice can you give other writers?

Rory Warwick: The first advice I would give to anyone who asked would be to just keep on keepin’ on. There are a thousand reasons to give up and I imagine a lot of people allow the dream to slowly whittle down over time until it’s just something they do when they have free time, but like anything that you’re passionate and serious about, you have to put in the hours and you have to keep going. Push past the rejections and the self-doubt and just write, everything else is window dressing. At the very least, write for yourself and if success comes, well that’s just icing on the cake.Back to top >>>

Featured Author: Mike Hultquist is a screenwriter, author, and total chilihead. His stories are typically dark and lean in the direction of horror, though he prefers atmospheric, psychological horror over the splatter type, which you’ll see in most of his work.
As a screenwriter, he is represented by Zero Gravity Management. His produced films include Victim, Arena (starring Kellan Lutz and Samuel L. Jackson), and 12 Feet Deep (starring Tobin Bell, Alexandra Park, Nora-Jane Noone, Diane Farr). Check him out on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2478416/.
As an author, he has published a number of stories in magazines and anthologies, co-edited the Halloween anthology Harvest Hill, and is the author of the novel, Off Track. See his writing credits at www.michaelhultquist.com.
As a chilihead, Mike operates a popular spicy food blog at Chili Pepper Madness (www.chilipeppermadness.com), where he cooks with big and bold flavors. He loves it all, all the way up to the hottest of the superhots. His latest work will be published in January 2018 by Page Street Publishing, called The Spicy Dehydrator Cookbook, which features ninety-five recipes you can create with your dehydrator, such as homemade spice rubs from scratch and zesty jerkies with plenty of heat.
Bring on the heat! And the horror …

LHP: How long have you been writing?

Mike Hultquist: I got the writing bug in grade school when I won a “Young Authors” contest in fifth grade. I’ve been writing ever since! Professionally, though, about 20 years in different areas.Back to top >>>

LHP: What genre do you prefer to write in?

Mike Hultquist: I have a few different areas where I focus. First is in the darker thriller/horror area with my screenwriting. I love lower budget films that focus on story, so I tend to lean that way. My latest is a movie called “12 Feet Deep”, about 2 girls trapped under the cover of an Olympic sized pool. Tobin Bell (Jigsaw himself!) plays a cameo role.
I write a great deal about spicy food, which I do at my food blog frequently – Chili Pepper Madness (www.chilipeppermadness.com). I’ve written several chili pepper-themed books and spicy food cookbooks, with a new one coming out this October called “The Spicy Food Lovers’ Cookbook”.
I also greatly enjoy writing short fiction with a darker spin, more in the area of psychological horror.

LHP: What/who inspired you to be a writer?

A World Unimagined, a sci-fi anthology by Left Hand Publishers

Mike Hultquist: I was initially inspired by all the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. I fell in love with the “John Carter of Mars” series and read them over and over. Such powerful inspiration. This led me into reading and writing more completely.
At the time, I looked at her as if she were crazy. As I said, I never believed I was any good. However, her words wouldn’t leave my mind. A little while later, I shoved the notebook with the first few chapters of a story under her nose and told her to read it.
I have dozens of notebooks filled with finished and unfinished stories, all of them with little side notes from my sister about what she thought of them.
Of course, there are dozens of authors who inspire me—Tolkien and Robert Jordan made me fall in love with fantasy—but the reason why I started was my sister.Back to top >>>

LHP: Describe your writing process. What comes first–character or plot? Do you “pants” it or outline?

Mike Hultquist: I outline everything. I feel it is very important for story to have a solid structure, otherwise I sometimes end up meandering too much, and the story suffers. A story needs to be tight, with everything working together, especially in screenwriting.
Story ideas strike in different ways for me. I could be reading an article where something strikes me, or meet a person that inspires something. Almost any situation can inspire a story idea. Once I have an idea, I start to outline it to see if it is worth pursuing.Back to top >>>

LHP: What is your daily/weekly routine as a writer?

Mike Hultquist: I write every single day on one project or another. I work from home and a big part of the job is writing, so it’s easy for me to crank along. I post 3 recipes a week on my food blog, plus work on my latest screenplay project. I’m also outlining a new novel idea and working on a new short story. There is always something to write about!Back to top >>>

LHP: Are there any software tools, resources, or websites you use often while writing?

Mike Hultquist: I may find certain bits of information by Googling things, but I don’t use anything specific on a regular basis. I write everything in Word or Final Draft for screenplays. I use WordPress and a number of associated plugins for my blog, which help optimize for search engines.Back to top >>>

LHP: What are some of your biggest challenges you feel like you have to overcome in your writing career?

A World Unimagined, a sci-fi anthology by Left Hand Publishers

Mike Hultquist: For me it’s been getting my foot in the door and keeping it there. It took me years to get a screenplay noticed, but I finally got signed on with a management company and have since had 3 movies made, but it is still tough to get a project filmed. It also took me a while to get in with my cookbook publisher, but they took a chance on me and now they love my work! I’ve completed 2 books for them.Back to top >>>

LHP: Do you have a set number of words per day you target? or do you set other goals to meet?

Mike Hultquist: When I work on novels, I shoot for at least 500 words/day, though I push for 2,000. I don’t write novels regularly, though. With cookbooks, I shoot for having a number of recipes done each week, which need to fit into my regular blogging workload.
I find it’s very important to set goals and deadlines for yourself so you can finish your projects, whether those goals are word counts, chapter counts, or whatever else works for you. Challenge yourself. Once you start earning a living as a writer, the deadlines set themselves. Just do your best to not skip days if you can help it.Back to top >>>

LHP: Do you prefer short stories or full length novels in your writing?

Mike Hultquist: I love writing story stories, though they can be difficult. You have to strip everything to the bone. They’re so satisfying, though, when the stories come together. The same goes for screenplays, which is definitely my preferred format. I’ve written so many screenplays, my mind automatically breaks every story idea down into that specific structure.
I’ve written a few novels, and while I greatly enjoy them, they take a long time for me to write, so when I commit to one, I have to have a REALLY solid outline to start.Back to top >>>

LHP: How much time is spent on “the business of writing” – queries, seeking an agent or publisher, marketing/sales?

Mike Hultquist: I used to spend a LOT more time writing queries, seeking agents or managers, sending out spec stories. I still do a lot of spec script writing, though there is now an agency involved with trying to get the scripts out there.
With my cookbooks, there is a lot of legwork outside of writing the book. You need to contact others in the industry for blurbs, promotional materials, marketing channels and opportunities, etc. Writing, regardless of your field of expertise, is so much more than just putting words down on paper. Your words are your commodity. They need to be promoted appropriately.Back to top >>>

LHP: Can you give some us some insight into your story?

Mike Hultquist: My story is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the Earth has been overtaken by ravenous giant bats. There is no explanation of how this happened, other than the fact that they were ‘transformed suddenly’. The story is about a group of survivors in the early days traveling from an unsafe school to a more secured location along the coastline. Can they survive the hunting bats? Can they survive each other?
The novel I’m outlining is set in this particular world. I’d love to write it.Back to top >>>

LHP: What advice can you give other writers?

Mike Hultquist: Read, study, learn in whatever format you’re shooting for. If you want to write novels, read as many of them as you can, not only in your primary genre, but others as well. If you want to write a screenplay, read what is selling right now. You have to read so much that it starts to bleed through your pores. Let it spill onto a few blank sheets of paper.
Then edit away!Back to top >>>

Featured Author: Tom Howard is a science fiction and fantasy short story writer living in Little Rock, Arkansas and working as a banking software analyst in the US and abroad. He thanks his children for their inspiration for this story and the Central Arkansas Speculative Fiction Writers Group for their perspiration.

When his four children were younger and traveling in the car for long distances, Tom would tell stories about them as super-heroes. This story, and many others, came from his Superworld collection of tales jotted down over the years. Meteor Man and his partner, Comet Queen, are alien members of a super-hero group called Heroes, Incorporated and fight a giant planet-eater called a Destroyer.This story deals with the concept that the universe is trying to tell us something if we only listen. There is no antagonist, just the heroine fighting herself until she has to take a leap of faith to save the world, arguing with her logical side the entire way. Instead of section breaks, there are news flashes showing how Earthlings are dealing with having a seemingly benevolent alien among them.

Tom is currently working on a Superworld anthology containing stories of his children’s adventures and has begun writing super-hero stories about his grandson and his friends.

LHP: How long have you been writing?

Tom Howard: I remember some friends and I writing a “cinematic monsters as heroes” story in the fifth grade, and I wrote a lot of Star Trek fanzine stories (mostly about Captain Uhura) in the 80s, but I only seriously began writing about eight years ago when my local science fiction group created a critique group for would-be writers.

LHP: What genre do you prefer to write in?

Tom Howard: I prefer hard science fiction. I’m talking little green men and spaceships, which I suppose we’d call space opera today. I do write fantasy on occasion, and I’ve written a mystery and horror piece occasionally, but my heart is on that ship heading to the great unknown.Back to top >>>

LHP: What/who inspired you to be a writer?

A World Unimagined, a sci-fi anthology by Left Hand Publishers

Tom Howard: Many teachers encouraged me to write growing up, and I never really appreciated the four years of English in high school until I got out into the world and realized not everyone had such an aggressive background in grammar and punctuation. Other writers I try to emulate are Andre Norton (I collect her books), Lois McMaster Bujold, and Ray Bradbury.

LHP: Describe your writing process. What comes first–character or plot? Do you “pants” it or outline?

Tom Howard: For short stories, I’m basically a Mozartian (the piece is finished in my head before I put it to paper) instead of a Beethovenian (loved to revise after creation). With a novel, I have done the pantser and the outline methods and prefer something in between: a loose idea of where the story is going but not outlined down to the paragraph.

LHP: What is your daily/weekly routine as a writer?

Tom Howard: Unlike many of my organized writing friends, I don’t have a set schedule. In the mornings, I generally answer emails and log rejections, then I write as work and life allows in the afternoons and evenings.Back to top >>>

LHP: Are there any software tools, resources, or websites you use often while writing?

Tom Howard: No. I find the grammar checkers result in writing that sounds like a computer wrote it, so I tend to use my online and local critique groups as resources. I’ve been attending workshops since I began writing professionally and find some of them more helpful than others.Back to top >>>

LHP: What are some of your biggest challenges you feel like you have to overcome in your writing career?

A World Unimagined, a sci-fi anthology by Left Hand Publishers

Tom Howard: Procrastination is probably my biggest problem, so I try to be aware of it and force myself to take steps to prevent it. Fortunately, my stories have lives of their own and tell me when they want to be finished. I’m never plagued with writer’s block. Like everyone, I compete with work and life distractions. I probably should set myself up a schedule, but I have enough deadlines in my life already.

LHP: Do you have a set number of words per day you target? or do you set other goals to meet?

Tom Howard: I do not have a set number of words per day (except during NANO). My goal is to write and sell a story a month, sometimes for a call for a specific anthology or inspired by something I’ve read recently. I have written a couple of novels, and I try to send out agent query letters several times a month.

LHP: Do you prefer short stories or full length novels in your writing?

Tom Howard: Definitely short stories. No subplots or in-depth characterizations to deal with. In a story, you should have a plot and some character development, but in a short piece you can get away with less. Plus, I don’t have to outline a short story or have it in my head for months (or years!).

LHP: How much time is spent on “the business of writing” – queries, seeking an agent or publisher, marketing/sales?

Tom Howard: I dislike all the admin crap immensely. After I update Duotrope, my separate spreadsheet, and maybe update the piece, I’ve lost valuable writing time. Contacting publishers on the current status of a story can be time-consuming as I usually have over 25 stories making the rounds. My biggest complaint is publishers who require strange and convoluted guidelines for submissions.

Several friends tell me I need a blog, twitter, and website as an author, but I feel those things take too much time away from my writing. I’m perfectly happy to update my Amazon author page occasionally and let the publishers deal with the marketing.

LHP: Can you give some us some insight into your story?

Tom Howard: “Star Crossed” has a long history. When my four children were young and trapped in the car for hours when we travelled, I told them stories about a Superworld where almost everyone had super-powers, including them as the Guardians. When they were grown, I wrote down their adventures. As a banking software analyst in my secret identity, I needed a creative outlet, so I wrote. Every Christmas for six years, I bound up the stories and gave them as Christmas presents to my children.

Someone in my local crit group asked me why I didn’t send those stories out to markets. I didn’t think masks and capes would be of much interest, but a good story is a good story, so I removed the capes and sold the first one immediately. Meteor Man in this story is one of the characters created for my children. I really like “the universe is speaking to us” stories, and this is one of my favorites. Since then, I’ve also sold stories with the capes still on.

LHP: What advice can you give other writers?

Tom Howard: Find community, online or local, and progress together. Master your craft. Read what you like to write. Attend workshops, take productive criticism, and keep writing. Learn something new every day. Most of all, don’t give up. With each story I write, I feel my writing improves.

Don’t believe everything you hear about what editors want. I’ve sold over 85 short stories and still have no idea what editors want. Each one wants something different. Keep submitting. There’s an anthology out there just waiting for your story.

Featured Author: T. Gillmore is a writer of speculative fiction and a gardener of dying plants. When she is not home writing and killing her plants, she and her husband scour the lands in search of the greatest wine created, which they find in each winery they visit. Her work has appeared in Aurora Wolf, Vestal Review, Left Hand Publishers’ anthology Beautiful Lies, Painful Truths Volume I, and The Writers of the Future Competition awarded her with an Honorable Mention in the short stories category. You can also find her on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/AuthorT.Gillmore and sometimes on Twitter https://twitter.com/bohemiangeek

LHP: How long have you been writing?

T. Gillmore: Jeepers, the characters in my head have been yelling at me since junior high. The only time they shut-up is when they’re on paper. It’s a love-hate relationship.Back to top >>>

LHP: What genre do you prefer to write in?

T. Gillmore: The genre seems to find me. I would start with an ordinary person, in the ordinary world, and then poof, he or she would disappear into the netherworld on a parallel universe with a six-shooter and a sidekick named Romeo.Back to top >>>

LHP: What/who inspired you to be a writer?

A World Unimagined, a sci-fi anthology by Left Hand Publishers

T. Gillmore: Teachers! From grammar school to college, they are number one. Especially the teacher that told me my grammar sucks, but my stories were outstanding. She corrected my mistakes, and I tried to learn my past participle.

LHP: Describe your writing process. What comes first–character or plot? Do you “pants” it or outline?

T. Gillmore: I’m more of a panster. Ideas hit me first, and I can be anywhere. So I keep a tiny notebook in my purse, a palm-size recorder, and of course, my cell phone where I can write those Ah-Ha moments that usually disappears if I don’t jot them down. I’m paranoid. I need multiple devices in case one fails. Gotta have back-up.

LHP: What is your daily/weekly routine as a writer?

LHP: Are there any software tools, resources, or websites you use often while writing?

T. Gillmore: I like trying new software tools, but I have my “go to” programs like Microsoft Word and Dictionary.com. Resources would be from websites to articles I snip from magazines. However, Dropbox is my lifeline. A cloud base storage for everything I had written. It works online and offline. I would be lost without it. Lastly, it’s my iTunes playlist while I’m on my treadmill. I discovered running is the best way to think, particularly when my characters are in a jam, which happens quite often. They are such troublemakers.

LHP: What are some of your biggest challenges you feel like you have to overcome in your writing career?

A World Unimagined, a sci-fi anthology by Left Hand Publishers

T. Gillmore: Doubt. The feeling my writing is juvenile. How I should keep what I wrote to myself. Oh, and did I mention past participle; I have yet to master it. I would love to find an agent for the novel I wrote, but it is sitting in my Dropbox, twiddling its thumbs, waiting for me to be brave enough to say, “We’re off!” I’ll do it this summer, I promise. Let’s hope my past participle passes.

LHP: Do you have a set number of words per day you target? or do you set other goals to meet?

T. Gillmore: I don’t set targets or goals. They make me nervous. One year, I participated in a national writing competition and failed miserably. What I wrote was a mess. I skipped necessary research so I can keep up with the word count, and then my characters decided to go on strike. No one wanted to talk because I was confusing who was where and with whom. I read setting goals help many writers, but it’s not for me. Writing is my meditation time. I look forward to it every day, and thankfully, my characters agree.

LHP: Do you prefer short stories or full length novels in your writing?

T. Gillmore: I lean towards novels. I enjoy revealing the different layers of the characters, and the roller coaster ride of the story. However, I do like short stories. A short story is a discipline, to keep the idea under a certain word count. I see paragraphs, sentences, words, as puzzles pieces that must fit to complete the picture I want to express to the reader. And hopefully, it’s a memorable tale.

LHP: How much time is spent on “the business of writing” – queries, seeking an agent or publisher, marketing/sales?

T. Gillmore: I don’t know how much time I spent, but I had created an Excel spreadsheet with agents interested in science fiction/fantasy. I have their names, emails, and if they want the dreaded synopsis. Also, I discovered some require social platforms. Those I placed at the bottom of the list. I completed my query, the god-awful synopsis, and it only took me five years. Not bad.

LHP: Can you give some us some insight into your story?

T. Gillmore: An emotion of loss and confusion sparked the story. Years ago, when I was twelve, my close friend and I watched Jeopardy with a neighbor. Monday through Friday, after supper, around 7pm. Rosy was an elderly lady, lived alone, never married. She could guess every answer right. One night we were on her porch. 7pm. The door was open, but the screen door locked. Rosy was lying on her sofa, TV on, head propped on a pillow, face not showing. We called out and then yelled. That’s when I knew something was wrong. After her funeral, Rosy’s sisters invited us to the house where we played bingo and the winner received trinkets that belonged to Rosy. I didn’t want to play, but I thought it was disrespectful to say no. They gave us cookies and patted our heads. Later, after the game, the sisters spoke to me. The words are vague now, but the sentiment stayed. They were glad; Rosy had little neighbors like us. She liked children. How Rosy rarely left her home. She was always so sad, and they guessed I knew that. They were relieved she timed her death so she could be found and not discovered decomposed. They thanked us when we left, arms filled with trinkets. I never knew Rosy was sad. We just watched Jeopardy, and she was so smart.

LHP: What advice can you give other writers?

T. Gillmore: I enjoy writing. I love it when my ideas come together, the characters feel real (if only to me), and I learned through the years my style developed into a voice. Or it’s vice versa. It doesn’t matter. What matters is writing is fun. Hard, but fun.
Submitting is tougher.
After so many rejections, I wanted to call it quits. I would get upset, disappointed, frustrated, and I took it personally. I asked myself, do I want to submit? Really, want to go through this again. My answer is yes. Stories make you feel good, fiction, or non-fiction, the tales spark the imagination, interest, and it’s darn entertaining. It’s your talent, and you should not suppress your talent because of setbacks. So, submit, and write on!Back to top >>>

LHP: How long have you been writing?

Todd Zack: I began writing stories in grammar school (maybe third grade), King Kong Vs. Godzilla type things. By high school I was penning slightly more inventive stories as well as pop cultural essays in a kind of adolescent HL Mencken style.

LHP: What genre do you prefer to write in?

Todd Zack: I enjoy writing in genres that allow great imaginative license- suspense, horror, fantasy- most any of the ‘marginal’ genres.Back to top >>>

LHP: What/who inspired you to be a writer?

Todd Zack: The self illustrated comical story books of Shel Silverstein were a big boon to the development of my imagination; as well as the Sunday newspaper funnies, specifically Bloom County by Berke Breathed.

LHP: Describe your writing process. What comes first–character or plot? Do you “pants” it or outline?

Todd Zack: I’m a visual thinker, so usually an image will accompany an idea and that image arrives as a still frame from somewhere within the story. I outline stories modestly, usually with slivers of character dialogue. Rarely will I simply fly through a story by the seat of my pants without placing some kind of diagrammatic leads for myself.

LHP: What is your daily/weekly routine as a writer?

Todd Zack: When I’m working on a story I need to do something with it every day, either by writing the first draft, editing or redrafting. When I’m not working on a story, I read. I don’t force myself to write every day when I don’t feel like it because I found that, for myself, time spent writing just for exercise is time better spent reading, experiencing the real world, absorbing fresh information and allowing new ideas to gather and gestate.

LHP: Are there any software tools, resources, or websites you use often while writing?

LHP: What are some of your biggest challenges you feel like you have to overcome in your writing career?

Todd Zack: Organizing one’s time productively is a challenge. Also, as I’ve gotten more experience under my belt I’ve become more deliberate with my writings. For me writing get’s more difficult with experience, certainly not any easier.

LHP: Do you prefer short stories or full length novels in your writing?

Todd Zack: I’ve been laboring through two novels for ages and can say, without reservation, that short stories are far easier- and therefore more fun- for me to write. I view my own short stories as the literary equivalent of the 25 minute Twilight Zone episode and I approach their design with that mindset. But, I’m sticking with the novels too. They’re coming along!

LHP: How much time is spent on “the business of writing” – queries, seeking an agent or publisher, marketing/sales?

Todd Zack: I spend a few hours each week researching markets and reading other writers work in publications I might be interested in being published in. I also stay in touch with certain editors or publishers who have rejected my work with encouragement or praise.

LHP: Can you give some us some insight into your story?

Todd Zack: My story is called, “The Lifeboat.” I was thinking firstly about dreams; thinking with a sense of wonder about the fact that I’d never committed a heinous act (say, murder) in a dream, unprovoked. I don’t know about other people’s dream lives, but for me, this was interesting because it suggested that whatever it is that we call ‘morality’ is not just some superficial civilized facade but goes deep down into our unconscious, or at least subconscious minds. This led me to thinking about precognitive dreams, premonitions. If someone were to have these talents in a reliable way it would open up an entire galaxy of moral dilemmas. In fairness, this idea has been explored before- in Stephen King’s The Dead Zone for example- but in “The Lifeboat” the end result is very different and the moral considerations much more ambiguous and open ended.

LHP: What advice can you give other writers?

Todd Zack: My advice to fiction writers would be to read in genres in and outside of the ones you most prefer. Also, try to read the entire oeuvre of at least a few different authors so as to see how they’ve developed themselves over time in terms of subject and style- what they add to their writings, what they remove- this can be very educational. To young writers; be as imitative as possible until you find your own style or styles, because sooner or later ‘your own style’ will happen. Lastly, for a technical crash course in narrative technique- watch daytime soap operas!Back to top >>>

Left Hand Publishers is proud to announce the release of their first two books (Beautiful Lies, Painful Truths Volume I and Beautiful Lies, Painful Truths Volume II) as a collected bundle in print form for only $21 ($9 off the retail price if you buy both books separately). You can only purchase this bundle at https://lefthandpublishers.com/product/beautiful-lies-painful-truths-bundle/. At this time, it is not available in any other online or brick and mortar bookstore for this price.
If you do want to purchase them individually, you can buy the print editions:

Beautiful Lies, Painful Truths Bundled Collectors Set

Left Hand Publishers is proud to announce we have bundled Beautiful Lies, Painful Truths Volumes I & II into a combined set and released at a lowered price. You can purchase the e-book on Amazon.com at https://amzn.to/2OJ240H or purchase the print books together at https://bit.ly/2NoDgGI.

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By bundling the two print books, we have lowered the price from $29.98 (if purchased separately) to $21.00 (30% OFF!). The e-book combination is now $6.99 or FREE if you use Kindle Unlimited.

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Featured Author: Joachim Heijndermans writes, draws, and paints nearly every waking hour. Originally from the Netherlands, he’s been all over the world, boring people by spouting random trivia about toys, comics and film. His work has been featured in a number of publications, such as Mad Scientist Journal, Asymmetry Fiction, Metaphorosis, Econoclash Review and Gathering Storm Magazine, and he’s currently in the midst of completing his first children’s book.

LHP: How long have you been writing?

Joachim Heijndermans: I used to write short fables as a child, which I would also illustrate. For years, I only wrote on the side, never seriously pursuing it outside of drafts or ideas for a story, with one unfinished screenplay made during high school still gathering dust somewhere. I began to write seriously when I attended the Kubert School in New Jersey. Among my writing there included scripts for comic books and pitches, as well as a few short stories that were eventually published. It was after my graduation that I began to pursue writing as a full on craft, both in script form and short narratives.Back to top >>>

LHP: What genre do you prefer to write in?

Joachim Heijndermans: I tend to lean towards science-fiction. I am fascinated by robots and artificial intelligence, which are both recurring subjects in my writing, if sometimes completely involuntary. One instance, upon hearing a story about how George R.R. Martin jumpstarted his ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ series when he had a dream of dire wolves in the snow, I tried to imagine that same scene, and it took less than a minute for a robot to pop into the setting, walking with the pack. This became the plot to my comic series ‘Ice Pack’, which I hope to find a publisher for at some point.

I also enjoy writing about extraterrestrial life, mostly to explore how ludicrous or fascinating humanity might seem in their eyes. My stories ‘The Udon at Tashihara’s’ (which is no longer in print) and ‘My Book Report on Starlight’, published by Metaphorosis, deal with this theme. I also love Kaiju stories in any format. I have written two Kaiju stories, ‘Blessed He Be, Shinokaze’ for Econoclash Review and ‘The Red Wind’, a comic script I illustrated for Aniway magazine, and I have several others planned. I dabble in horror, but I need to ad some humorous twist to it if I am going to finish it, as in the case of my story ‘The End of All of Time, Reality, the Infinite and the Unimagined’ (published with Mad Scientist Journal), which started out as cosmic horror before becoming a more comedic farce about boredom.Back to top >>>

LHP: What/who inspired you to be a writer?

A World Unimagined, a sci-fi anthology by Left Hand Publishers

Joachim Heijndermans: I have always been telling stories in any format, be it in film, comic book or short story. While I can’t pinpoint what particular event inspired me to write, I do know that several works and authors have inspired me to sit down and jolt out work. Haruki Murakami and Neil Gaiman’s work has inspired me to try a different approach, while films by Hayao Miyazaki and Quentin Tarantino have pushed me to work on memorable characters. I suppose my largest inspiration has been Osamu Tezuka, who’s work has taught me to be fearless and try anything.

LHP: Describe your writing process. What comes first–character or plot? Do you “pants” it or outline?

Joachim Heijndermans: It all depends on the story I want to tell. Sometimes there’s a plot, for which I create characters to follow and participate in it. Other times there are characters, for whom I have to make a plot so they don’t stand around doing nothing (although in one story of mine, ‘Waiting on the Circle’ from Gathering Storm Magazine #1, the three main characters did just that). For my novel (which has a extremely large cast of characters), and my comic book scripts, I’ll set up an outline to keep track of it all (in the latter’s case, this is a must if I plan to draw it as well). But some of my flash fiction and shorts tend to be written on the fly, sometimes with no planned ending when I start. I usually go with an approach that just feels natural.

LHP: What is your daily/weekly routine as a writer?

Joachim Heijndermans: I’m somewhat embarrassed to say I don’t really adhere to a routine. I try to write daily, but I don’t really set a designated time for when I write. This is not because I don’t want to, but my schedule has been very hectic the last few years that I usually steal moments to write here and there, wherever I can find them.Back to top >>>

LHP: Are there any software tools, resources, or websites you use often while writing?

Joachim Heijndermans: I’ve used a number of grammar aides over the years, as my not being a native English speaker can sometimes cause me to overlook simple mistakes. But the one tool that has saved several stories from dead sentences and sloppy grammar is the TTS reader, which will read any text aloud back to me. It’s been a lifesaver and has really opened my eyes/ears to my little writing quirks, such as repetitive dialogue.Back to top >>>

LHP: What are some of your biggest challenges you feel like you have to overcome in your writing career?

A World Unimagined, a sci-fi anthology by Left Hand Publishers

Joachim Heijndermans: Concentration. Like many writers can probably attest to, it is often more fun to start a new story than to finish and old one.

LHP: Do you have a set number of words per day you target? or do you set other goals to meet?

Joachim Heijndermans: I try to hit at minimum 400 words a day. Doesn’t matter which story or what part of the story (my approach is very chaotic, which might not be the best approach), as long as I hit my 400 word minimum. I’m hoping to push this to a 1000 words in the near future, as I have been able to hit this mark in the past.

LHP: Do you prefer short stories or full length novels in your writing?

Joachim Heijndermans: While I do have a novel or two planned down the pipeline, I enjoy writing shorts as they allow me to jump from topic to topic (like an absurd form of commitment issues towards the longer stories). In recent times, even my shorts have gotten longer, but I love the restrictions brought on by word limits. In fact, one of the novels I have planned is really more a collection of short stories, tied together by one returning character.

LHP: How much time is spent on “the business of writing” – queries, seeking an agent or publisher, marketing/sales?

Joachim Heijndermans: Most likely, not enough. For the last few years I have been very busy with a number of personal avenues, which included a move across the Atlantic, my marriage, my graphic design work and many other factors. I am always on the lookout for markets and publishing venues for whom I might have just the right story, but it has happened more than once that life has prevented me from finishing a story before the set deadline of an anthology came around.

LHP: Can you give some us some insight into your story?

Joachim Heijndermans: “Last Sub” is a deviation of my regular writing, as its cast is very unlikable and lacking in many redeeming qualities. The story mostly deals with desperation. How far we would go for our self preservation. I also wanted to explore our capacity to be both cruel and tender simultaneously. That, and I wanted to play with my uneasiness toward deep sea creatures.

LHP: What advice can you give other writers?

Joachim Heijndermans: Other than writing every day and not being afraid to make mistakes, my biggest advice would be to listen to editors. Some of my better stories are only so because an editor wasn’t afraid to make comments and give the story a good look over with the red pen. They need to be blunt and unafraid of voicing their opinions. Nothing has made me happier than when an editor who previously accepted a story rejects another, as that lets me know they really read the stories I’ve sent them.Back to top >>>